ROBUST SILICON CARBIDE (SiC) NANOELECTROMECHANICAL SWITCHES WITH LONG CYCLES IN AMBIENT AND HIGH TEMPERATURE CONDITIONS

We report experimental demonstration of nanoscale electromechanical contact-mode switches with clearly high comparative performance, enabled by polycrystalline silicon carbide (poly-SiC) nanomechanical cantilevers, in a three-terminal, gate-controlled, lateral configuration. We have recorded the complete time evolution of the measured switching events in ambient air, by switching devices on and off for 105106 cycles without failure (i.e., devices still alive; special accelerated tests are needed to properly ‘exhaust ’ the device and approach its intrinsic lifetime). These SiC nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) based switches have all dimensions but length in nanometer scale, and demonstrate on/off ratios of ~104 or higher, with repeatable performance over days in air. We have also demonstrated SiC NEMS switches operating at high temperature (T500C) in air. With a typical motional volume of only ~1µm3 and long ‘hot ’ switching cycles in air, these SiC devices exhibit strong potential toward realizing robust NEMS switches and logic circuits